End Human Trafficking

The Collaborative Initiative
to End Human Trafficking
educates and advocates
for the prevention
and abolition of
human trafficking
while connecting services
on behalf of trafficked
persons.
The Collaborative Initiative
To End Human Trafficking
V O L U M E
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I S S U E
3
F A L L
2 0 1 1
Sustaining the Mission:
Collaborative Joins Humility of Mary Housing
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:
Feasibility Study 2
Findings
Grant Provides
Opportunities
2
Immokalee
Workers in Ohio
3
AGs Confront
Backpage.com
3
Around the
Regions
4
Resources Near
You
4
The Collaborative
Initiative to End Human
Trafficking is happy to
announce that it became part
of Humility of Mary Housing on October 1, 2011.
As with so many organizations today, the Collaborative has been seeking ways
to sustain its mission and
work into the future. It
reviewed a variety of
options and worked with
Business Advisers of Cleveland to find the best supportive structure for its growth.
After much discussion, the
Steering Committee of the
Collaborative unanimously
chose to become a program
of Humility of Mary Housing, and the HMHI Board of
Directors welcomed the
Collaborative to its wide
array of programs and
services for those in need.
Ken Radigan, President
and CEO of HMHI, introduced the Collaborative as
a welcome addition to
Humility of Mary Housing
at the second annual HMH
Foundation Dinner on
October 15, 2011.
The missions of the
two organizations are
supportive of each other.
Since the Collaborative’s
beginning in 2007, they
have worked together regarding emergency needs
of refugees in Cleveland,
housing needs of trafficked
persons and of minor
victims of sex trafficking
in northeast Ohio, and
programming to involve
the housing residents in
education about human
trafficking.
Humility of Mary Housing is based in Akron, Ohio
and includes housing for
seniors, transitional housing and youth aging out of
foster care – as well as case
management, emergency
assistance, and food and
clothing for those in need.
It serves five Ohio counties
and has entities in Garfield
Heights, Lorain, Wellington, Akron, Northfield
Center, Girard and
Youngstown.
The mission of Humility of Mary Housing is to
empower, strengthen and
increase the self-reliance of
individuals and families,
especially the poor,
through supportive services
and quality housing. See
www.hmhousing.org for
more information.
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Study Findings Require Coordinated Response
The major findings of the Feasibility Study Regarding Housing
and Services in Northeast Ohio for
Minor Victims of Sex Trafficking
conducted earlier this year by the
Collaborative, Humility of Mary
Housing, and the Cleveland Rape
Crisis Center in conjunction with
Case Western Reserve University
include:
There is a need for safe
housing and supportive services for victims of sex trafficking in northeastern Ohio;
There is a significant lack of
knowledge regarding human
trafficking among professionals who deal with vulnerable
populations in northeast Ohio,
including basic information
regarding the crime, its local
reality, victim identification;
effective intervention, and
resources available for victims;
There is a lack of a coordinated response team among
service providers and law
enforcement in northeast
Ohio designed to address the
specific needs of sex trafficking victims;
January 11, 2012
is the
National Day
of Human
Trafficking
Awareness .
Plan now to attend
a program,
hold a vigil, and
learn more about
how you can help!
There is no coordinated
continuum of care for victims of sex trafficking in
northeast Ohio.
The Study included interviews with practitioners in the
fields of social work, health
care, law enforcement, mental
health, legal advocacy, and the
judicial system. The interviewees represented national, state
and local organizations and as
well as adult survivors of minor
sex trafficking.
The Study made recommendations regarding housing and
services, education, coordination of a response team, continuum of care, and research.
Committees members are
partnering with interested agencies and organizations to address the recommendations.
First on the list are the identified
needsfor education, housing
and services .
.
Graduate students and Professor Terry Hokenstad of Case Western
Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences have
been integral to the Feasibility Study. Left to right are Jessica Heilman,
Professor Hokenstad, Jennifer Hartmann, and Lindsay Schwartz.
Grant provides awareness and leadership opportunities
Because the homeless
and women without means are
among the most vulnerable to
human trafficking, the Collaborative recently applied for and
received a grant from the Diocese of Cleveland’s Catholic
Campaign for Human Development to collaborate with transitional housing programs in
Lorain, Summit and Cuyahoga
Counties to educate residents
and staff about the issue.
The goal of the project is
to not only inform, but also to
empower the residents to develop and practice leadership
skills as they assist in presenting
human trafficking programs to
other audiences.
The first educational awareness session was held in early
November at FAITH House in
Lorain, Ohio, a transitional housing facility serving single parent
homeless families. FAITH House
is part of HM Housing. Additional
human trafficking awareness
sessions are being scheduled for
residents of HM Life Opportunity
Services in Akron in 2012. The
awareness sessions will be followed by leadership development
classes for participants to develop
skills that can be used to gain
success in future endeavors.
The Collaborative is grateful to
CCHD for the opportunity to extend its educational outreach and
looks forward to offering leadership development skills and opportunities to additional groups.
VOLUME
2,
ISSUE
3
PAGE
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Immokalee Workers Visit Ohio
Few of us stop to
think about where our
food comes from—who
plants, grows, harvests,
prepares and readies produce and other
food items for our tables. The workers so
often remain out of sight, out of mind, unacknowledged and unpaid for difficult, backbreaking work in fields and factories across
our nation. Sometimes these workers are
subject to labor trafficking as well.
Two representatives from the Coalition
of Immokalee Workers, Santiago Perez and
Marc Rodrigues, recently visited northern
Ohio and other parts of the state to highlight
the issue of labor trafficking in the tomato
fields of Florida. The CIW is a communitybased farmworker organization headquartered in Immokalee, Florida, with over 4,000
members. The CIW seeks modern working
conditions for farmworkers and promotes
their fair treatment in accordance with national and international human rights stan-
dards. The CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food
has won unprecedented support for fundamental farm labor reforms from retail food
industry leaders.
Santiago and Marc captivated their
audiences in Lorain, Rocky River, Cleveland and Canton with their bilingual
descriptions of working conditions and
treatment of those who pick tomatoes for
our tables. A typical tomato worker gets
paid about fifty cents for every 32-pound
bucket of tomatoes, and would have to pick
a bucket every 4 minutes for 10 hours a
day to even come close to making
$10,000/year. Conditions are often hot and
sunny with little access to shade or time for
breaks, and the fields are likely to be infested with pesticides.
Santiago and Marc described the
CIW’s Fair Food Campaign, which is
designed to urge buyers to pay one penny
a pound more for the tomatoes they purchase and to sign a commitment to assure
Marc Rodrigues and Santiago Perez address groups
throughout northern Ohio.
fair and just treatment of
workers in the fields.
Over the past nine years, they have had success
with Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Subway and some
other fast food restaurants as well as Whole
Foods grocery stores. They are focusing efforts
on other grocery chains and are asking for basic
rights like rest breaks, access to shade and protection from pesticides during the course of their
work day.
Follow the progress of the Coalition of
Immokalee Workers at www.ciw-online.org and
join their fair food campaign!
Attorneys General Confront Backpage.com
Trafficking in Person Report 2007
In Fall 2010, twenty-one state attorneys general wrote to Backpage.com
requesting that it remove its adult services section. They stated that ―We
believe that ads for prostitution - including ads trafficking children - are
rampant on the site.‖ The attorneys
general urged the action to ―protect
innocent women and children,‖ despite
the potential loss of revenue to backpage.com. www.scribd.com/doc/69853460/
With Our Gratitude
The Collaborative
extends a bouquet
of thanks to the Sisters
of the Humility of Mary
for serving so generously
as our fiscal agent since 2007.
.
We also extend our gratitude to all of
the members of the HM Finance and
Development Offices who have
supported the Collaborative with their
expertise and time.
.
Thank you!
www.atg.wa.gov/
September-21-2010-Attorneys-General-write-to- activity on its website.
Backpage-com Unlike craigslist, which shut uploadedFiles/Home/News/Press_Releases/2011/
down the adult services section of its NAAG_Backpage_Signon_08-31-11_Final.pdf
website in 2010, Backpage.com has refused to do so.
Therefore, in Fall 2011, an increased
number of state attorneys general – fiftyone - again called on Backpage.com to
address the issue and to provide information on how the website handles
advertisements that may involve illegal
activity, especially the sexual commercial
exploitation of minors.
In their letter, the attorneys general
state that despite Backpage’s assertion
that it has policies and practices to prevent illegal activity, they have tracked
―more than 50 instances, in 22 states
over three years, of charges filed against
those trafficking or attempting to traffic
minors on Backpage.com.‖ They state
that the website is a ―hub‖ for ―human
trafficking, especially the trafficking of
minors.‖ ―In lieu of a subpoena,‖ they
ask Backpage.com to substantiate its
claims that it is working to prevent illegal
In response, Backpage.com stated that
it shares the goal of eliminating child trafficking and suggested a meeting with the
attorneys general. It also made statements
regarding its immunity as a computer
service provider and First Amendment free
speech concerns.
The attorneys general are currently
reviewing the materials provided by Backpage.com to determine the policies and
procedures it has in place to prevent ads
for illegal activity on the website.
An online petition asking Backpage.com
to end its facilitation of human trafficking
has been posted on change.org. The petition’s webpage states that ―Village Voice
Media has a moral responsibility to ensure
that young girls aren't being abused in the
commercial sex industry with help from
their website, and that they aren't facilitating human trafficking.‖ http://www.change.org/
petitions/tell-village-voice-media-to-stop-child-sextrafficking-on-backpagecom
.
Around the regions...
Toledo
Sisters & Associates take a
corporate stance against
human trafficking
Tiffin
We, the Sisters and Associates of the
Women Religious Communities in the
Toledo Diocese, in keeping with our
position of nonviolence and respecting the inherent dignity of each person, corporately stand in support of
human rights, by explicitly opposing
the trafficking of women and children
for the purposes of sexual exploitation
and forced labor.
.
Chained images speak loudly at a recent
display organized in Tiffin.
Canton
SCCAHT recognized for anti-trafficking efforts
The Stark County Coalition Against Human Trafficking (SCCAHT) was recognized by the
Stark County Victim Rights Coalition which is working with the Prosecutor's Office in the
county. In the name of SCCAHT, Karen Bernhardt received a certificate of appreciation
and a paperweight in recognition of the group’s work against human trafficking.
Sylvania
Lorain
Pastoral Responses to Human Trafficking
(from a multi-faith perspective)
January 11, 2012
Rosary Care Center, Sylvania OH
Two sessions
9:00 A.M. – 12:00 noon
2:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M.
Rocky River
.
Using the tag line ―It Could be Me,
the Human Trafficking Collaborative
of Lorain County created a public
service announcement to raise
awareness of human trafficking in
their local area. You can see it by
clicking on this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=IZrB5t0i_XI
Resources near you
.Borrow materials or arrange a presentation!
Canton, OH
Catholic Charities
3112 Cleveland Avenue NW
Canton, OH 44709
Karen Bernhardt, HM 419-307-0829
[email protected]
Carrollton, OH
Sisters of Our Lady of Charity
620 Roswell Rd. NW, Carrollton, OH 44615
Frances Nevolo, OLC 330-627-7647
[email protected]
Chardon OH
Sisters of Notre Dame
13000 Auburn Road, Chardon, OH 44024
Barbara Daugherty, SND
440-286-7101, ext. 1240
[email protected]
Cleveland West
20525 Detroit Road
Rocky River, OH 44116
Anne Victory, HM 440-356-2254
[email protected]
Lorain, OH
Nord Center, 6140 S. Broadway
Lorain, OH 44053
Mindi Kuebler 440-204-4225
[email protected]
Cleveland East
2600 Lander Road
Pepper Pike OH 44124
Mary Ellen Brinovec, OSU
440-449-1200
[email protected]
Sandusky, OH
Holy Angels Church
428 Tiffin Ave, Sandusky, OH 44870
Joyce Bates, SND, 419-625-3698
[email protected]
Tiffin, OH
Sisters of St. Francis
200 Saint Francis Ave, Tiffin OH 44883
Mary Kuhlman, OSF, 419-350-6786
[email protected]
Toby Lardie facilitates a recent training session for
professionals on how to present programs on trafficking.
If you suspect someone is a victim of human trafficking,
call the National Trafficking Resource Center Hotline:
1-888-3737-888
COLLABORATIVE INITIATIVE TO END HUMAN TRAFFICKING
CLEVELAND, OHIO
TEL: 440-356-2254; FAX: 440-356-5714
E-MAIL: [email protected]
Toledo, OH
Sisters of Notre Dame
3837 Secor Road, Toledo, OH 43623
Diane Pfahler, SND 419-691-1673
[email protected]
Youngstown, OH
Diocese of Youngstown
144 W Wood St
Youngstown, OH 44503-1081
Naomi Hokky 330-297-7250
[email protected]